www.InDIanexpress.COM The MAny Lives of A WeAve ahmedaBad, aUGUsT 9, 2026 Laila Tyabji traces the hands, histories and chance encounters behind the country’s handloom revival late CIty 12+4 pages ₹6.00 sCreen A new Netflix series revisits Kargil War through the eyes of young pilots D a I l y f r O M : a h M e D a b a D , happening today lAssAm government will begin a door-to-door assessment of flood damage in the four worst-hit districts of the state. It will disburse compensation to those affected based on this survey. lthe hAr ghAr tirAngA Campaign 2026 begins. Organised under the Ministry of Culture, this year’s initiative coincides with Independence Day and is dedicated to the spirit of Vande Mataram. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com politics page 7 tamil nadu mps seek permanent freeze On lOk saBha seats C h a n D I g a r h , D e l h I , j a I p u r , k O l k a t a , l u C k n O w , PlAn to mArCh towArDs AssemblY tomorrow shubham tigga Ranchi, August 8 the seCOnD round of talks between the Jharkhand governmentandstudentrepresentatives protesting alleged irregularities in government recruitment examinations ended without a breakthrough on saturday, prolonging a conflict that the state has so far struggled to resolve. thestudents,however,said thegovernmenthadlistenedto their demands and that they would wait for the issues to be taken up with Chief Minister hemant soren before deciding whether to withdraw their »ContinUeD on PAge 2 n a g p u r , express special stalled govt jobs, cases stuck in court, exam delays: what’s behind the ranchi fast, protest The charges for merchants, if and when applied, will be lower than that for debit or credit cards: Ministry New Delhi, August 8 rupesh kumar Pal, 30 shubham tigga Ranchi, August 8 When 40-YeAR-OLD Rahul Kranti walked into the protest site, he said he was carrying nearly a decade of frustration with Jharkhand’s recruitment savita kumari, 28 system. On Friday, he was amongthecandidatesonanindefinite hunger strike, saying repeated examinations, court battles and delayed recruitments had left him with little choice but to take to the streets. Like Kranti, those on the PM to students: Question Your parents could not things accepted without face their fears, you have: thought, find solutions Rahul at Prayagraj meet rahul kranti, 40 stage symbolise the grievances thathavesimmeredamongthe state’s job aspirants over decades. From a woman attending her first-ever protest to a man who has spent countless hours in court, The Indian Express »ContinUeD on PAge 2 the world page 10 deal with Oman clOse, says iran Prime minister narendra modi and Union education minister Pralhad Joshi (left) at IIT delhi, saturday. ptI express news service manish sahu ALLAYInG UseR concerns, the Ministry of Finance “categorically”statedsaturdaythat consumers making UPI paymentswillnotfaceanytransaction charges, and all person-toperson transactions will continue to be free of charge. It, however, said as and whenMDR(MerchantDiscount Rate) charges are introduced, theywillapplyatanominalrate only above a certain threshold, andonalimitedsetofmerchant transactions. “It would be far lower than debit or credit card MDRs,” the statement said. MDR is a fee levied on merchants by banks to help meet costs related to processing of transactions, settlement and infrastructure.Creditcardsface »ContinUeD on PAge 2 Leader of opposition rahul Gandhi interacts with students during the ‘chhatron ki Goonj’ programme in Prayagraj, saturday. VIshal srIVastaV New Delhi, August 8 PRIMe MInIsteR narendra Modi told students saturday to “questionthethingsthatareaccepted without any thought” butnotstopthereand“havethe courage to find their solutions” as well. speaking at the 57th convocationceremonyofIItDelhi, inside pages 7, 4 in Bengal, BJp cracks dOwn On 325 wOrkers Over extOrtiOn manipur gOvt reOpens natiOnal highways after three years Modi said, “I have observed the journeys of many IIt alumni. the reason for their success was not just that they gave the right answers. the reason for their success was that they identified those questions which the world had stopped considering as questions. they found solutions to those problems with which others had »ContinUeD on PAge 2 Prayagraj, August 8 In hIs first student outreach event after the Jantar Mantar protest concluded in Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi invoked “dard (pain), data and daulat (wealth)” to attack the BJP and Rss. Lauding youths for “fighting against the system”, he said he would always stand with them. Addressing a ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Prayagraj, Gandhi said: “You are the powerandprideofIndia.When I say this, I am talking about every Indian citizen.” Gandhi spoke before a large gathering, of mostly students and competitive exam aspirants, including those who had »ContinUeD on PAge 2 No drop-down options, caste census format to be open-ended Enumerators to record caste stated by people, will not try to classify surnames, sub-castes into broader caste categories Deeptiman tiwary New Delhi, August 8 the ReGIstRAR General of India (RGI) has decided to use an “open-ended question on caste”ratherthanadrop-down menu of castes for the caste census to be conducted alongside the population enumer- ation phase of the Census. this format is likely to produce results similar to the 2011 exercise when the socio-economic and Caste Census (seCC) was conducted. sources in the Ministry of home Affairs (MhA) said enumerators will simply ask people tostatetheircasteandrecordthe answer verbatim, without attempting to classify surnames, sub-castes or other responses into broader caste categories. Population enumeration, alongwiththecastecensus,will beconductedacrossthecountry inFebruarynextyear.however, in hilly and snow-bound areas, »ContinUeD on PAge 2 l ‘Back To schooL’ camPaIGn: ahmedaBad records 86% sUccess In BrInGInG Back droPoUTs ‘Why study when kids can help us earn?’ Question Ahmedabad teachers were asked ritu sharma them out of schools. It pained her to see former students helping their parents neetABen n Bhadresha (44), sell vegetables on the streets a head teacher at a municipal near the Jivraj Mehta hospital school in Ahmedabad’s Vasna, in the evenings. spent her summer vacation these 57 children dropped going from home to out from Classes 1-8 page 1 home and tracking from her school durdown 57 children ing the 2025-26 acawho dropped out of demicsession.Atthe her school in the past year. this endofthe‘Backtoschool’cammeant making repeated visits paign launched by the state on her scooter, convincing par- educationDepartmentinMayents to not view their children June this year, all the children as “earning members” and pull returned to school. Ahmedabad, August 8 anchor Paresh Patel (extreme right), a teacher at Indrapuri Public school in the ramol area of ahmedabad, was tasked with tracking 44 dropouts. express p u n e , V a D O D a r a UPI free for citizens, merchants may face ‘nominal’ fee: Govt siddharth Upasani Unne habiba, 27 p a t n a , no ChArge on ConsUmer, Person-to-Person PAYments Jharkhand student protest: Round 2 of talks with govt fails to end deadlock Protesters say demands will be taken to CM, no call to withdraw agitation yet M u M b a I , “Apart from selling vegetables, children would go to thewholesalemarketwiththeir parents in the morning to buy them.so,theywouldmissboth the morning as well as the evening classes,” Bhadresha tells The Indian Express. “While children were ready to attend school, it was the parents who were insisting that they help them in their work,” said Bhadresha,who headsthe Vasna Municipal Primary school number 3. A veteran, »ContinUeD on PAge 2 Ahmedabad lUpitransactionsbyticketsizeinFY26 100 n<₹500 n₹501-₹2,000 n>₹2,000 86% 80 60 59% 40 20 0 21% 20% 10% persOn-tO-persOn 4% persOn-tO-MerChant sOurCe: MInIstry Of fInanCe Why charge? Because smooth UPI payments cost Rs 20,000 cr a year siddharth Upasani New Delhi, August 8 shOPPInG hAs never been easier or cheaper since the Unified Interface Payments, launched in 2016, democratised finance and QR codes replaced complex bank details for transactions big and small. today, consumers don’t pay for it, nor do merchants. the costs are being paid for bybanksandotherfinancialsystem players, and estimates suggest these to be about Rs 20,000 crore a year now. Banks expected to get compensated after all this when the Lok sabha passed the taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 on thursday. E. »ContinUeD on PAge 2